As part of the reaccreditation process by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Georgetown last month released a self-study report that looks into various components of University life and offers over 100 specific recommendations for suggested improvement.
To its credit, the report recommends that Georgetown continue to do everything it can to meet the financial needs of all accepted students. The University doesn’t fully deliver on this promise, the report states, particularly with regards to international students. only a small percentage of whom receive financial aid. Enough funds generated by the Third Century Fund should be set aside solely to ensure Georgetown’s commitment to need-blind admissions and to a diverse student body. As the report points out, “Georgetown is one of a decreasing number of major universities in the nation” that guarantees this, and any policy that contributes to a more diverse campus should not be allowed to falter.
We fully endorse the report’s recommendation that the University more fully educate students and faculty on issues that affect Georgetown’s relations with the outside community. Off-campus students in particular should be well aware of local bodies such as the Advisory Neighborhood Commission whose actions directly affect students. Furthermore, the University should make sure that all students know why the University is taking legal action against the Board of Zoning Adjustment. The BZA, which oversees all building in the District, has made restrictions to the 10-Year Master Plan that unfairly impinge on student rights. The University should do everything to protect students rights; at the very least, it should make students aware of them.
The report also looks into ways involving more students in the top-level University decision-making process, but it could have done more. “Over the past decade,” the report says, “efforts have been made to incorporate more students into the University governance system.” It rightly points out that students don’t have much information about how the University Board of Directors actually works, and it recommends that the Board use venues such as student publications for informing the community about how high-level University decisions are reached. But to actually get students involved in these high-level decisions, students need permanent representation on the Board. But the report balks from going this far. Ultimately, incorporating more students into the University governance system means not just informing them about top-level decisions, but actually involving them in the process itself.
The 129-page report is certainly a comprehensive overview of life at Georgetown, but it could have benefited from more comprehensive input from students. Only 11 were involved in the entire self-study process and surprisingly, of the 23-member Task Force on Students, only two students participated?and one had graduated in 2001. No students were even included on the Task Force on Facilities, Staff and Finances. If, as the report states, the self-study process represents “a significant opportunity for members of the Main Campus to reflect comprehensively on where we are and where we are going,” it needed significantly more student input.
